I have this week wrote many reports. Good reports take time and are short. The contain facts and can make clients uncomfortable. Since I deal in numbers my reports can contain lots of financial information. The cost to systematise a clients accounting system, write procedures and ensure they are followed depends on the client having people to do the work. But the one thing each of these reports had in common is that they all indicated that my clients needed bookkeepers, real bookkeepers, not administrators, but someone who understood bookkeeping. A person who likes numbers and who must get things to balance. Someone who will chase after the business owner for all the little expense receipts, pester them when they don’t fill out the cheque stub and most importantly have financial reports prepared for when they are needed.

A bookkeeper is not a receptionist, a typist, a personal assistant. People feel the need to try and get a bookkeeper to do all the tasks except that of a bookkeeper. The reports I wrote were all about the businesses financial information and how to collect it, record it and report on it. A bookkeeper will ensure that this system of collecting, recording and reporting keeps moving, but yet clients still want them to answer phones, type letters and do other non bookkeeping functions. The reports I write remind my clients about this. Why employ someone to do a job that will improve your business reporting function and help the business plan financially and the instead get them doing something else and so the financial information to help run this business never comes or is late or inaccurate. It is a false economy. You don’t need a bookkeeper 8 hours a day, 5 days a week in most small businesses. A part time bookkeeper will pay for themselves.

I know I will be writing more reports like this and I know business owners will still want the bookkeepers to be an all rounder. If you want an all rounder then don’t employ a bookkeeper, a good bookkeeper is a bookkeeper!